Biology Department Snags Expert Ecologist

Harvard has convinced a leading plant ecologist to quit his post at the University of Illinois and accept a tenured position in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology (OEB).

The recruitment of Fakhri A. Bazzaz is part of a series of appointments designed to strengthen experimental botany at the University, professors said yesterday.

Bazzaz's specialty--the physiology of plant science and Biology--is an underrepresented area at Harvard, said Cabot Professor of Biology Lawrence Bogorad.

Bogorad and other professors declined to discuss other tenure appointments being considered.

Construction

Professors said the new appointment was in part the result of new building space and modernized facilities that are available because of the construction of the Fairchild Biochemistry Laboratories and the current $25 million renovations of the Biological Laboratories.

"It was necessary to redo the building to attract the best type of people," said Robert M Woollacott, chairman of the EOB.

Bazzaz could not be reached for comment.

Bazzaz is currently director of the School of Life Sciences at the University of Illinois and heads a 14-member research group. He will arrive at Harvard in the fall.

He has published several articles on plant ecology and recently published a book reviewing the topic.

He is widely recognized for his ground-breaking work on "wet tropics" and for his studies dealing with "synthesis across bounds" of ecology--that is, applying the study of plants to population and community ecology.

He also contributed to several recently completed books on ecosystems.

"I wouldn't have crossed the Atlantic Ocean to work with just anybody," said Keith Parbutt, one of Bazzaz's research assistants at the University of Illinois, who is originally from Europe.

"People from all over the world have come to work with him" he said, adding that Bazaar in "respected but very approachable."

"You can walk into his office at any time. He is open and available to all his students." He said.

Bazzaz studied at the University of Illinois and received his Ph.D. there in 1963. Three years later he became a professor at the same university.

New Assistants

In related developments professors said that the department has also recently hired three new assistant professors.

They are James Carpenter, a specialist on insects at Cornell University. Bruce Waldman an expert on vertebrate behavioral ccology, also from Comell; and Rodney Honcycult a specialist in molecular genetics of mammals from the University of Michigan.

The department also expects to appoint a junior faculty member in molecular genetics of plants Wollacott said